Microsoft yesterday announced that they are expanding the “Promote Your App” ad campaigns for Windows app developers to Microsoft premium surfaces such as MSN.com, Outlook.com, and Skype, as well as games like the Microsoft solitaire collection. Previously, “Promote Your App” ad campaigns were limited to other apps in the Windows Store.

MSN, Outlook, Skype and Solitaire collection are used by millions of users daily, and this move by Microsoft will allow developers to promote their apps to wider audience. Microsoft is using machine-learning algorithms for allocation of budget among the Microsoft surfaces. These algorithms start with finding the right set of users who should be exposed to your ad campaign, and then measure the effectiveness of each surface to adjust the target user profiles and budget allocations.

How to get started?

All campaigns that use auto-targeting will be universal campaigns bydefault. To use auto-targeting, make sure Automatic is selected for the Audience section of your campaign settings in the Dev Center dashboard.

If you wish to create a manually targeted campaign, make sure you choose Universal for the Surface setting in the Audience section of your campaign.